Victoria West

As part of the party’s Woman to Woman tour, she will be joining Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Bedford, Patrick Hall, to drum up support in Cavendish Street at lunchtime.

She will be talking about the cost of childcare in the area during her visit to both Bedford and Kempston.

Labour party figures released last week showed that the cost of childcare in Bedford Borough is now a quarter of the average weekly income.

Miss Harman said: “A nursery place of 25 hours a week for children aged two and over is now more than a quarter of an average worker’s wage locally.

“Labour’s offer of 25 hours free childcare for three and four year olds for working parents would really help to make a difference”

The Woman to Woman campaign is scheduled to visit more than 70 constituencies in the run up to the General Election in a bid to urge woman to vote.

Fathers 4 Justice activists will be turning out to once again point out to Miss Harman that nine million women don’t vote and eight million don’t, but there are around a million more women than men in this country. Also, the majority of voters - 51 per cent - are women.

The group campaigns for equal rights for fathers in divorce and separation proceedings and reform in the family courts.